Race Report - Chennai Cyclothon 2010
Vivek Radhakrishnan
Dont have too much time, but will bang out a report anyway.
Basically the mighty Bharani (from Chennai) and our speedy Prashanth
(from Kynkyny) have given a real good overview of the day, I'll just
throw in a few more words anyway.
Organisation was crap, especially annoying when one drives the whole
damn day to get to such an event. We got no email confirmations of our
registration, they didnt have any records of our payments
(crap....Matt, forgot to reemburse you for that, sorry mate, will do
that later) and it was basically like an amaturish lit-fest being
organised by a bunch of students. There was no advertising of the
event in Chennai, leave alone other cities, and there has hardly been
any press coverage since!
Anyway, nuff bitching. The race itself was pretty much Tamil Nadu
State teams, except for a few "outsiders" who were really made to feel
that way.
The elite category had the usual state elite types, but also Dood-wala
bikes and single-speed MTBs etc, this after being told that there will
be an official inspection of equipment to check everything is within
race regulations!!! Ha, whatever Mr.Official....(I am a bit bitter
after this race as the tone of this report may suggest)
Anyway, race kicks off after a loooooooong wait at the start line, by
which time the mosquitos had the time to suck all the steriods out of
the dope-heads waiting in line, so in the end chances are that it was
a fair, drug-free race after all. I had however used up half my carb
reserves scratching my itchy devoured legs.
There were a bunch of clowns on motorbikes riding along with us,
waving red flags furiously and shouting rudely at the top of their
voices at all moving and stationary objects within line of site, I
stilll haven't figured out which political party they belonged to, and
what they were doing, but they were quite scary and rode along with us
the entire race!! Every once in a while they tried to knock us of our
bikes and scare the spandex off us with their incredibly loud horns.
We were pretty successful in avoiding them, so they came up with a new
strategy to get us: As in all international caliber races, the secured
route was lined with peaceful resting cattle, these activists on bikes
figured that by scaring the poor animals just as the paceline was
approaching, would guarantee eliminating at least a couple of riders.
This nearly bloody worked, the pace line had to scatter and swerve,
brake, skid screach etc, to avoid ballistic cattle!!!
When that didnt do it, they figured that allowing traffic (especially
fast buses with spitting passengers) onto the race route might help
get at least 10 or so riders. This however nearly worked. One well
loaded bus swerved violently right when we tried to pass him on that
side, then left when we tried there, and then right again when we came
back, I had thoughts of quitting the race at this point, but being an
adrenalin junky I stayed on as my adrenal glands were having a party.
Then like an old war ship, the passengers started to spit from the gun
holes as we passed, how they hell did we survive this race???
Anyway, the TN state guys have this fantastic race strategy, ride
along as slow as you can balance for quite a long time, then suddenly
SPRINT as fast as you can go, and when one of the Kynkyny guys chases
and catches up, SLAM the brakes and return to Snail-mode! Its the
first time that I have been exhausted while doing a single digit
speed average!!
Anway, we picked up the pace, because after all we came to race
dammit, and we had the privilage of Karun Chandhok's company
throughout the ride, and he was having trouble dealing with the slow
pace being used to tripple digit figures starting with the numbber 3!
We were a bit embarassed as we wanted him to know that actually,
usually its a bit quicker than this, and indeed there is an edge to
bike racing too. He rode with us the whole way, mighty fine cyclist
and super nice guy.
We had time to talk about everything, life in England..."Oh, excuse me
Karun, quick sprint, I'll be right back...you were saying"...training
in Italy, test driving for Red bull etc....
Anyway, come the last couple of kms, we had all our strategy nicely
together since our last few training sessions in B'lore and
discussions in Chennai the night before at Matt's place, our line up
was impecable - Matt was grinding away at the front being the Diesel
locomotive that he is, Prashanth getting ready to lead me out onto the
final sprint after Matt is done, and Sidda was distracting the TN
boys, but somewhere, somehow, one of those &%$#*^ guys decides to cut
right in, in front of Prashanth, and ofcourse, knock his front wheel
and send him face flat onto the asphalt! God damn!!!! I turned and saw
Prashanth crash down, and slide, and then other bikes actually ride
over him, and then just a big old mangle of bikes and boddies. I was
so damn scared, and didnt know what to do, so somehow we (Matt and I)
rode on feeling so horrible and scared and sort of like traitors for
not stopping (Prashanth man, I still feel bad), and we went on against
the others to finish the race. There was no indication of the distance
to the line, no markers, nothing, so when a TN guy sprinted (as his
coach on a motorbike instructed him to do) I also went for it, it was
pretty neck and neck ( arm and leg maybe) and then there was a skinny
line on the road with some folks on the side, but could that be the
finish??? So I'm still hammering away, but he seems to be sort of done
though, so I ask him, "was that it........, are you sure....?" and
that was the end!
Oh god, I've been typing for so long now...... then I saw the
ambulance scream by, and just knew it was Prashanth. Finally we found
him at the registration place, surrounded by lovely young damsels in
uniforms, and the guy was smiling inspite of looking like he stepped
on a frickin land mine! You're a soldier kid! Please see attached
images, for a better understanding.
Then after about 27 hours, and the arrival of some 5 odd clones, all
of whom were in white with black mustaches, there was a prise
distribution.
They called out the First place, Second, Third.......Sixth etc, then
the Ladies and so on, we were wondering when the hell we were going to
hear my name. Then when they were pretty much done, I said, "Hey what
the hell is going on, I came in second, what are you doing", and they
said the equivalent of "who the hell are you?"
All this time none of the TN guys, including the guy who accepted
secon place batted an eyelid. Then there was no prise money for us
because we were out of state, and all kinds of other bull shit.
WHAT EVER!!! This was my last damn race in Tamil Nadu!
It was an awesome team practice though, and I'm so happy with the way
we raced as a unit, according to plan and with style :) Awesome job
boys, thanks for everything.
And lastly, Balls to Chennai Bloody Cyclathon! Mumbai is going to
rock, and BBCh kicks ass.
I'm attaching pictures for yall, enjoy
Mr.69 has left the building.........
--
VIVEK RADHAKRISHNAN
Sameer Shisodia
Hi all,
Dont have too much time, but will bang out a report anyway.
The BSA Tour Of Nilgiris 900kms, 7000m+ of climbs.
http://tourofnilgiris.com
Sameer Shisodia, Bangalore
(c) +91-98451-80207
Gaurav Dwivedi
--
biking conversations on the world famous "Bangalore Bikers Club" :)
are you a part of the bicycle racing scene?
Visit www.bangalorebicyclechampionships.com for more details
arv...@neuro-spine.com
Congrats once again to the team and three cheers for BBC bikers.
Hope that Mumbai delivers where Chennai flopped.
Loved the part about the guys on the motorbikes!
Arvind
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel
Vivek Radhakrishnan
Sent from my iPhone
Pankaj C
well deserved position.
BTW, the Mumbai cyclothon looks really neat with many international
cyclists coming to race.
Vivek, in which category are you guys planning to participate?
The Amateur category does not look like a race at all. Is there any
way of getting into the Indian Elite category without registering with
CFI?
Prashant get well soon buddy...
Cheers
Pankaj
On Jan 25, 8:11 pm, Vivek Radhakrishnan <themudoff...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Aren't you coming to Mumbai too?? Cmon, the more the merrier!!
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 25, 2010, at 8:06 PM, Gaurav Dwivedi
>
>
>
> <gaurav.dwived...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Nice report Mr 69.
>
> > Spoke to Prashanth yesterday and he told me about the podium
> > incident. Not calling you up to the podium shows how well
> > 'organised' the race was. He also told me about the tactics some of
> > the cyclists used.
>
> > At the end of the day you guys cycled like champions and that's what
> > matters. :) All the best for Mumbai.
>
> > Regards,
> > Gaurav
>
> > On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Vivek Radhakrishnan <themudoff...@gmail.com
> > Visitwww.bangalorebicyclechampionships.comfor more details- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Sagar
bad organisation. Anyways, congos for the team work guys !
Also wishing Prashanth a speedy recovery .. Well, it doesn't look like
he's suffering much from the last pic :P ha ha..
Cheers,
Sagar T U
> > > Visitwww.bangalorebicyclechampionships.comformore details- Hide quoted text -
Yogesh N. Rao
--
biking conversations on the world famous "Bangalore Bikers Club" :)
are you a part of the bicycle racing scene?
modi
cheers
modi
Vivek Radhakrishnan
Mumbai for a "ride" :)
V
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 25, 2010, at 9:42 PM, Pankaj C <pankaj.c...@gmail.com>
wrote:
deepakvrao
Prashanth seems to be in good hands ;-)
On Jan 25, 6:48 pm, Vivek Radhakrishnan <themudoff...@gmail.com>
wrote:
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Bharani
as I was writing my words to 'Chennai'.
The guys in the motor bikes with the flag were from TNCA and they were
the race officials cum coaches of those young lads who took all the '6
positions!!'.
There were clear indications of the entire show to be a mess when I
had to stand for 3 hours to collect the bibs for our group on Saturday
and finding that there were no separate bibs for different categories.
Some of the best riders of our group had ourselves split into 2. Some
wanted to try 60 and the rest in 25 so that we can try finding
ourselves some place.
The 25K race was scaled down to a 'ride' on Saturday looking into the
mass. On Sunday morning, it became a 8 Km baby ride. Some of our
fellow bikers chose to ride in the parallel road (ECR) and have fun.
Vivek, we got the best treatment on the road with the traffic
arrangements :-) 2 guys from the second group of the 60K category
dropped after 30K just getting irritated of the traffic. We never ride
in the OMR at 8 AM. One of the important reasons for poor traffic
management is that they did not invite any political personality who
can command the police force make things in order (on the other hand,
if he is coming late, the race would have started at 8 or 9). The
republic day rehearsals were going on in the beach road and the top
cops were missing during the event to place orders.
Veterans from our group have seriously insisted me on changing my bike
and registering with CFI/TNCA for a hassle free participation in
future. The experiences from Bangalore and Chennai should make TI run
a good show in Mumbai. As of Chennai Cyclothon, TI had very little
time (2 weeks) to work on and heard from some of the TI guys that
there were lot of mishaps in managing the materials and those guys had
very tough time running the show for the 2 days. I was very much
tempted to post my review in the "Event" created for Chennai Cylothon
in Facebook. But was very much irritated to find the event being
deleted. Hope they ran away to hide.
Regards,
Bharani.
ralb...@yahoo.com
Anyway, I will be back in Bangalore in 2 weeks and this time bringing my travel racing bike - was hoping to catch a group ride - maybe do a race - we shall see. Do let me know.
Will most likely be staying near my office there Diamond District.
Catch you all there and be sure to wear your helmet!
Ray
R
Ray Alba
President & Director
KraftGenie Cycling Inc./Champion System Racing
ralb...@yahoo.com
917.940.5099
Gaurav Dwivedi
ray alba
From: Gaurav Dwivedi <gaurav.d...@gmail.com>
To: ralb...@yahoo.com
Cc: Bangalore Bikers Club <Bangalor...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thu, January 28, 2010 12:23:48 AM
Subject: Re: [BBC] Re: Race Report - Chennai Cyclothon 2010
arv...@neuro-spine.com
This is Arvind
We start from TGI Fridays on old Airport road @ 5.45 am.
Give me a buzz on 98452 94701
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel
Craig
If you can, try to stay around Bangalore until the weekend of the 21st
Feb, when the first race of the BBCh (Bangalore Bicycle Championships)
season will be on - a time trial.
...being President/Director, I'm sure you can schedule your trip
around this important date!... :)
Cheers
Craig
On Jan 25, 9:41 pm, ralba1...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Hey all. I am new to the group. You might have seen me there at the Banglaore Cyclothon in October with my Red Dahon. Did the amateur event and was hoping to do the elite race with my team but, they would let me as registration ended early. Oh well.
>
> Anyway, I will be back in Bangalore in 2 weeks and this time bringing my travel racing bike - was hoping to catch a group ride - maybe do a race - we shall see. Do let me know.
>
> Will most likely be staying near my office there Diamond District.
>
> Catch you all there and be sure to wear your helmet!
>
> Ray
>
> R
> Ray Alba
> President & Director
> KraftGenie Cycling Inc./Champion System Racing
> ...
>
> read more »
PeterCS
depends on one's level of expectation prior to the event.
I mean I was fully expecting the whole thing to be a mass shambles, so
I was actually really pleased that our lead pack at least had the
semblance of a real race - even if there was no finishing line marked!
Lucky I kept up with the pack, otherwise I would have been stopping at
red lights and have got seriously irritated like some of the others,
or those who signed up for the 25km race which got downgraded to an
8km ride.
I didn't expect the grazing cattle to cleared from the race route, I
mean this was in Chennai, not Bangalore!
and I knew in advance there was going to be some hocus-pocus about
licences/non-licences from TNCA, that's our CFI bureaucracy ..
originally it was going to only professional licence holders who were
going to be able to enter the race at all
Bharani, I didn't know you spent three hours collected our bibs,
thanks a million for that, it made everything so smooth early on
Sunday morning, we just arrived, picked them up and were ready to go,
fantastic!
watch out for plans by chennai-bikers - for the next event to be
organised by bikers for bikers
and please do come and join us again in Tamil Nadu for that!
cheers
Peter
> ...
>
> read more »